Genetic fault 'doubles' risk of breast cancer

08/10/2006

Women with a fault on the gene BRIP1 have double the risk of developing breast cancer, a new study has found.

Scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research found that mutations in this gene lead to breast cancer more often than would be expected by chance and believe that it contributes to around 100 cases of breast cancer diagnosed each year in the UK.

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The gene was studied in 1,212 women with breast cancer who had a family history of the disease that was not due to the known breast cancer genes, BRCA1 or BRCA2.

Results were then compared to 2,081 healthy women.

Nine BRIP1 faults were found in the breast cancer patients but only two were identified in the healthy individuals.

This faulty gene was found to increase a woman's risk of the disease by the age of 70 from one in 12 to around one in six.

Publishing their findings in the journal Nature Genetics, the researchers argue that the discovery could help doctors to identify women at increased risk of developing breast cancer and will allow preventative measures, better diagnosis and more tailored treatment to be undertaken in the future.

"BRIP1 is the latest gene we have found and leads to a small increased risk of breast cancer," said lead author Nazneen Rahman, professor of cancer genetics at The Institute of Cancer Research.

"We know there are many more genes still to find before we have the complete picture of the genetic causes of breast cancer, but with each step we are making progress."

Only 0.1 per cent of the general UK population (roughly 30,000 women) carry a damaged version of the BRIP1 and not all women with it will go on to develop breast cancer.

Responding to the findings, Professor John Toy, Cancer Research UK's medical director, said: "The discovery of a gene that increases breast cancer risk, even for a small number of women, is very important.

"Scientists are now beginning to understand more about the genes that are linked to breast cancer and we hope this knowledge will help identify and better manage more women at an increased risk of the disease in the future."

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